Company comes to WMU to put science 'behind' their product

Nov. 6, 1997

KALAMAZOO -- Researchers at Western Michigan University and
a Portage medical manufacturing company are trying to get to the
bottom of an expensive, yet preventable problem -- pressure ulcers
or bedsores.

For more than one year, faculty and students from the WMU Department
of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering have been working
with MicroPulse to determine if a product the company has developed
and patented is more effective at maintaining blood flow, reducing
pressure and preventing tissue damage than those already on the
market.

"MicroPulse was looking for independent scientific studies
and we were interested in the opportunity to have students conduct
meaningful scholarly research," says Dr. Tycho K. Fredericks,
WMU assistant professor of industrial and manufacturing engineering
and co-director of the department's Human Performance Institute,
which conducted the testing.

Called the MicroPulse System, the product resembles high-tech
bubble wrap packaging material, only in this case, it's attached
to a hose and an electrical air pump. The pump inflates and deflates
the air pocket cells in an alternating pattern every two minutes,
allowing blood flow into areas beneath a person who is lying or
sitting for a long period of time.

"Our body's natural response to pressure is to move or
shift our weight," says Jim Tappel, vice president of MicroPulse.
"But if a person can't feel or if they're unconscious on
an operating room table for 12 hours in heart surgery, the surface
has to move for them. Pressure doesn't kill tissue, lack of blood
flow does."

Researchers tested the product using infrared technology to
assess blood flow in the buttocks after a two-hour period of lying
down. Working with men and women over the age of 50, the group
had the subjects lie on a variety of surfaces, then rolled them
over to take the infrared photos of their backsides. A rush of
blood to an area indicated the body's attempt to replenish nutrients
and heat, a sign that tissue damage would occur if left for longer
periods of time.

Fredericks and his students fine-tuned the research procedures,
then tested the MicroPulse system against a gel pad and the standard
foam pad, which are both typically found in hospital operating
rooms. Early results indicate good news for the company.

"The gel pad and the foam pad are more static in nature,"
Fredericks explains. "A person lies on it and that's it.
During surgery, the patient often maintains one position for hours,
resulting in areas of blood-starved tissue. With the MicroPulse
product's alternating inflating and deflating zones, the blood
has an opportunity to move around and that's what we proved in
our study. It does make a significant difference."

Armed with these results and a relatively inexpensive product
that can be made to fit a variety of settings, MicroPulse hopes
to make a major impact in the health care industry, unrolling
its system on hospital room operating tables, nursing home beds
and even wheelchairs.

Tappel and Fredericks expect the product could save hospitals
thousands of dollars in unplanned medical expenses as they often
shoulder the $5,000 to $27,000 involved in treating bedsore wounds.

"There are 60,000 deaths a year attributed to pressure
ulcers or bedsores," Tappel says. "This isn't just a
nuisance -- people die from these."

Researchers are also certain that with a few adjustments, the
MicroPulse concept can also be utilized in other places where
folks sit for long periods of time, whether in a cab of a semi-truck
or at the computer in an office.

"This really is the pneumatic equivalent of the wooden
beads often seen on the seats of New York City taxi cabs,"
Tappel jokingly says of the product, which took more than two
years and $1 million to produce.

With the WMU studies complete, MicroPulse is now conducting
clinical trials of its product within health care settings, while
Fredericks and his students are in the midst of publishing papers
and making presentations around the country. The project has also
resulted in additional student research projects, and some students
are now working for the MicroPulse firm.

The work was funded by a $155,000 state grant from MERRA, a
small business development program contracted by the Michigan
Jobs Commission. The goal of MERRA is to team researchers with
common interests in joint projects that eventually result in job
creation.